


She Burned as Bright as the Stars

by Bubblebirdie



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen, Light Angst, POV Moira Queen, Truth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24192499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubblebirdie/pseuds/Bubblebirdie
Summary: She fellShe crashedShe brokeShe criedShe crawledShe hurtShe surrenderedand then...she rose again.~ Nausicaa Twila
Relationships: Laurel Lance & Moira Queen, Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance/Tommy Merlyn, Moira Queen/Robert Queen
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	She Burned as Bright as the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because I was just so done. I was so done with Arrow's misogyny because Laurel Lance deserved better and so did Moira Queen. This is a bit more Oliver-negative than I intended, so I'm sorry about that. I hope it still comes off as Moira-ish enough. I've never written her before though, so here goes nothing.

Moira Dearden had been Laurel Lance. She had met a Queen and bothered to look past his paparazzi smile. To look past his lies and entitlement. To see what could be.

Moira Queen had once been Laurel Lance. She had once believed in love, and more specifically, that a Queen could love. She had hoped a wedding ring might keep his love. She had been wrong, but she was too proud. To strong to go back to her life before she had met Robert Queen. Instead, she threw herself into her new one. She didn’t bat an eye at the mistresses, so long as they were kept away from the children. So long as they had a semblance of the life she had, for Moira Queen had been raised to be a strong woman with a backbone of steel. When her son was born, she saw hope. She saw a way to bring the potential in Robert to fruition. His name meant peace, and she prayed that he would have the calm in his soul that her husband lacked. But she was never meant to be a mother. She was meant to change the world. So, her son grew up to be a Queen much like his father had been. Entitled. Self-centered. But the difference Moira felt was that Oliver was loved. And if he knew what it was to be loved, perhaps, he could figure out how to do the loving.

That was when Moira Queen met Laurel Lance. It was like looking back in time. In her eyes, there was the hope and idea of what Oliver could be. The belief that Oliver could be more. Moira Queen wanted to take Laurel Lance’s hands in her own and tell her to run, far away from there. Nothing good could ever come from a Queen. But Moira was a prideful woman as was Laurel, and so, she did nothing of the sort. Because the world was cruel and if Laurel couldn’t see that whenever Oliver cheated on her, then, she was a fool. Though no more a fool than Moira had been herself. Truly, it pained Moira to see it unfold because she would not- could not accept that Oliver was like his father. That each day, he grew to be more and more like him. She preferred to see him as her little boy, and she always would have. If he had not met Laurel Lance. Because no matter what he did, they would end up together because Laurel could not help but see what could be. She was naïve. She thought that everyone tried as hard as she did. And as Moira Queen watched the familiar scenes unfold, she could not help but smile wryly to herself, for Laurel Lance could not be more wrong and who knew that better than she.

Moira Queen had once been Laurel Lance.

But Laurel Lance did not become Moira Queen. It was luck in disguise, Moira thought only when her son returned. A cruel thing to think of her husband’s death and her son’s torture, she wasn’t an idiot, she had seen the scars. He was the Arrow too, and he had truly changed. Not into what Laurel had envisioned. Not into what she had envisioned, but into something worse. Something unforgivable. Much like herself. And as Laurel Lance flirted with Tommy Merlyn, Moira couldn’t but help wish, just a little, that Laurel be spared. She couldn’t help but wish, just a little, that Moira Dearden had been spared. But her youth was long gone, and the fire within her burned on because she didn’t know how else to exist. So, her wish was selfish. But Moira Queen never thought herself to be a selfless person. It was her opinion that anyone who claimed to be was lying. She did not blame herself for what she had done. She did what she needed to survive. And so, would Laurel Lance albeit under different circumstances.

Laurel Lance drank because life grew heavy. Moira did not blame her. When her life had grown too heavy, she had escaped with passion. Laurel Lance was angry because the universe had done her a disservice. But Moira Queen was older and more well-versed in the ways of the universe. She only laughed because Laurel had ever expected it to be fair. Despite the difference in their stories from the moment the Queen men stepped on the Gambit, they were both women to whom saying no came easier than breathing. Fair? To them. Never. They were not charming. They were furious and charged with electricity. They didn’t dip their toes into the cold water. They closed their eyes and jumped into the deep end. They were strong. But the world wasn’t ready for strong women. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

Laurel Lance did not become Moira Queen, but she died just the same.

Because the day a Queen set foot in her life, she was cursed. Cursed never to be able to move forward. To prove herself. The day Laurel Lance met Oliver Queen she lost her story because in the view of the world, it was not as important as his. At best, it was a subplot, but she had been barely granted that. The day Moira Dearden met Robert Queen she lost her identity because in the view of the world, it was not as important as his. At best, it was a part of him, but he barely shared even that.

Every Queen man wanted a woman that could walk away from an explosion without looking back. So that they wouldn’t see their future blowing up as they rode off into the sunset.

Moira Dearden had been Laurel Lance. She had met a Queen and bothered to look past his paparazzi smile. To look past his lies and entitlement. To see what could be.

But Moira Queen knew that a Queen would ever change. For, you cannot make ice stick around a flame.


End file.
